Suniti Namjoshi (born 1941 in

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

) is a poet and a

fabulist Fable is a literary genre defined as a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, legendary creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are anthropomorphized, and that illustrates or leads to a partic ...

. She grew up in India, worked in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

and at present lives in the southwest of England with English writer Gillian Hanscombe. Her work is playful, inventive and often challenges prejudices such as racism, sexism, and homophobia. She has written many collections of fables and poetry, several novels, and more than a dozen children's books. Her work has been translated into several languages, including Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Chinese, Korean, Hindi and Turkish.

Early life

Suniti Namjoshi was born in

in 1941. Her father, Manohar Vinayak Namjoshi, was senior test pilot at Hindustan Aircraft in

Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

. He was killed when his plane crashed in 1953. Her mother, Sarojini Namjoshi, née Naik Nimbalkar, was from Phaltan. Suniti was sent to Woodstock, an American mission school in the Himalayan foothills, and then to Rishi Valley in

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (ISO 15919, ISO: , , AP) is a States and union territories of India, state on the East Coast of India, east coast of southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, seventh-largest state and th ...

where

Jiddu Krishnamurti Jiddu Krishnamurti ( ; 11 May 1895 – 17 February 1986) was an Indian Philosophy, philosopher, speaker, writer, and Spirituality, spiritual figure. Adopted by members of the Theosophy, Theosophical tradition as a child, he was raised to fill ...

used to come and talk to the children for a couple of months each year.

Career

Having passed the IAS in 1964, she worked as an officer in the

Indian Administrative Service The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) is the Public administration, administrative arm of the All India Services of Government of India. The IAS is one of the three All India Services along with the Indian Police Service (IPS) and the Indian ...

before pursuing further education. She studied Public Administration and earned her

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

from the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou or MU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri, United States. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Univers ...

and earned a PhD from

McGill University McGill University (French: Université McGill) is an English-language public research university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill University, Vol. I. For the Advancement of Learning, ...

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an List of poets from the United States, American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Ita ...

. Namjoshi taught in the Department of English at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

from 1972 to 1987. She wrote ''Feminist Fables'' in 1981. It was described in ''Feminism, one of her voices'' as a minor feminist classic and the work for which Namjoshi, who the article said produced a "brilliant body of work, marked by sparkling wit, word play and inventive power, emerged", is best known. She began writing full-time in 1987, publishing fiction and poetry works. ''Kaliyug - Circles Of Paradise'' (play) and ''Flesh And Paper'' (poetry) were written in collaboration Gillian Hanscombe. Namjoshi has been influenced by

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer and one of the most influential 20th-century modernist authors. She helped to pioneer the use of stream of consciousness narration as a literary device. Vir ...

Adrienne Rich Adrienne Cecile Rich ( ; May 16, 1929 – March 27, 2012) was an American poet, essayist and feminist. She was called "one of the most widely read and influential poets of the second half of the 20th century", and was credited with bringing "the ...

, her friend Hilary Clare, and

Kate Millett Katherine Murray Millett (September 14, 1934 – September 6, 2017) was an American feminist writer, educator, artist, and activist. She attended the University of Oxford and was the first American woman to be awarded a degree with first-clas ...

's '' Sexual Politics''. She has been active in the

feminist movement The feminist movement, also known as the women's movement, refers to a series of social movements and political campaigns for Radical politics, radical and Liberalism, liberal reforms on women's issues created by inequality between men and wom ...

and

gay liberation The gay liberation movement was a social and political movement of the late 1960s through the mid-1980s in the Western world, that urged lesbians and gay men to engage in radical direct action, and to counter societal shame with gay pride.Hoff ...

movements. Namjoshi was Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre for Women's Studies at

Exeter University The University of Exeter is a research university in the West Country of England, with its main campus in Exeter, Devon. Its predecessor institutions, St Luke's College, Exeter School of Science, Exeter School of Art, and the Camborne School o ...

in England from 1995 to 2001, and was a member of the Literary Panel of the Arts Council of England from 1993 to 1996. In 1996 Namjoshi published ''Building Babel'', a postmodern novel about building cultures, whose story continues online with a collaborative project that enables readers' contributions. In 2023 Namjoshi was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 800 Fellows, elect ...

. Namjoshi currently lives and writes in

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

, United Kingdom.

Published works

Fiction

*''Feminist Fables''. London: Sheba Feminist Publishers, 1981. *''The Conversations of Cow''. London: The Women's Press, 1985. *''The Blue Donkey Fables''. London: The Women's Press, 1988. *''The Mothers of Maya Diip''. London: The Women's Press, 1989. *''Because of India: Selected Poems and Fables''. London: Onlywomen Press, 1989. *''Feminist Fables'', Spinifex Press, North Melbourne, 1993 *''Saint Suniti and the Dragon''. North Melbourne: Spinifex, 1993; London:

Virago Press Virago is a British publisher of women's writing and books on feminist topics. Started and run by women in the 1970s and bolstered by the success of the Women's Liberation Movement (WLM), Virago has been credited as one of several British femin ...

, 1994. *''Building Babel''. North Melbourne: Spinifex, 1996. *''Goja: An Autobiographical Myth''. North Melbourne: Spinifex, 2000. *''Sycorax: New Fables and Poems''. New Delhi:

Penguin Books Penguin Books Limited is a Germany, German-owned English publishing, publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers the Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the ...

, 2006. *''The Fabulous Feminist: A Suniti Namjoshi Reader''. Delhi: Zubaan Books, 2012; North Melbourne: Spinifex, 2012. *''Suki''. Delhi: Penguin India, 2012; North Melbourne: Spinifex, 2013. *''Foxy Aesop'' aka ''Aesop the Fox''. Delhi: Zubaan, 2018; Melbourne: Spinifex, 2018 * * ''The Good-Hearted Gardeners''. Melbourne: Spinifex, 2023. * ''O Sister Swallow''. Spinifex: 2024. * ''Matriarchs, Cows and Epic Villains''. Delhi: Zubaan and

Penguin Random House Penguin Random House Limited is a British-American multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate publishing company formed on July 1, 2013, with the merger of Penguin Books and Random House. Penguin Books was or ...

: 2025.

Poetry

*''Poems''. Calcutta: Writers Workshop, 1967. *''More Poems''. Calcutta: Writers Workshop, 1971. *''Cyclone In Pakistan''. Calcutta: Writers Workshop, 1971. *''The Jackass and the Lady''. Calcutta: Writers Workshop, 1980. *''The Authentic Lie''. Fredericton, N.B.: Fiddlehead Poetry Books, 1982. *''From the Bedside Book of Nightmares''. Fredericton, N.B.: Fiddlehead Poetry Books & Goose Lane Editions, 1984. *''Flesh and Paper'' (with Gillian Hanscombe). UK: Jezebel Tapes and Books, 1986; Charlottetown, P.E.I.: Ragweed Press, 1986. *''Because of India: Selected Poems and Fables''. London: Onlywomen Press, 1989. *''Sycorax: New Fables and Poems''. New Delhi: Penguin Books, 2006. *''The Fabulous Feminist: a Suniti Namjoshi Reader''. New Delhi: Zubaan, 2012.

Children's

*''Aditi and the One-Eyed Monkey''. London: Sheba Feminist Publishers, 1986. *''Aditi and the Thames Dragon''. Chennai, India: Tulika Publishers, 2002. *''Aditi and the Marine Sage''. Chennai, India: Tulika Publishers, 2004. *''Aditi and the Techno Sage''. Chennai, India: Tulika Publishers, 2005. *''Aditi and Her Friends Take on the Vesuvian Giant''. Chennai, India: Tulika Publishers, 2007. *''Aditi and Her Friends Meet Grendel''. Chennai, India: Tulika Publishers, 2007. *''Aditi and Her Friends Help the Budapest Changeling''. Chennai, India: Tulika Publishers, 2007. *''Aditi and Her Friends In Search of Shemeek''. Chennai, India: Tulika Publishers, 2008. *''Gardy in the City of Lions''. Chennai, India: Tulika Publishers, 2009. *''Siril and The Spaceflower''. Chennai, India: Tulika Publishers, 2009. *''Monkeyji and the Word Eater''. Chennai, India: Tulika Publishers, 2009. *''Beautiful and the Cyberspace Runaway''. Chennai, India: Tulika Publishers, 2009. *''Blue and Other Stories''. (art work Nilima Sheikh). Chennai, India: Tulika Publishers, 2012; North Melbourne: Spinifex, 2012. *''Little i''. Chennai, India: Tulika Publishers, 2014. *''The Boy and Dragon Stories'' (pictures Krishna Bala Shenoi). Chennai, India: Tulika Publishers, 2015 *''Aditi Adventures 13: The Antarctic Mission''. Chenna, India: Tulika Publishers, 2020. *''In the Land Where Beetles Rule''. India: Pratham Books, 2022.

Translation

*''Poems of Govindagraj'' by Ram Ganesh Gadkari. Translated by Suniti Namjoshi and Sarojini Namjoshi. Calcutta: Writers Workshop, 1968.

References

External links

Works by or about Suniti Namjoshi
in libraries (

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...

catalog)
Suniti Namjoshi , The fantastic fabulist
''Mint'' article by Diya Kohli
Fashion Your Own Fables
''

Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language India, Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932 by P. Varadarajulu Naidu. It is headquartered in Noida, owned by the Indian Express Limited, ''Indian Express Group''. It was later taken over by Ramnat ...

'' article by Amritta Dutta {{DEFAULTSORT:Namjoshi, Suniti Living people 1941 births University of Missouri alumni McGill University alumni Academic staff of the University of Toronto Academics of the University of Exeter Women writers from Maharashtra 20th-century Indian women writers Lesbian feminists Lesbian poets Poets from Maharashtra 20th-century Indian poets Indian women poets British LGBTQ poets Indian LGBTQ poets 21st-century British writers Indian fabulists Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Indian LGBTQ writers